Federal medical marijuana hearing starts in D.C. Circuit Court today

Should Purple Blueberry be in the same drug category as heroin and LSD?

This morning, the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC is scheduled to begin hearing oral arguments in a forty-year-long battle to end cannabis’ placement in Schedule One of the five-tiered Controlled Substances Act system for classifying drugs.

Americans for Safe Access, representing a handful of patient-plaintiffs, hopes to get the DC circuit court to compel the Drug Enforcement Administration to reschedule pot to a less restrictive category — an idea the DEA has rejected twice since weed was provisionally placed in Schedule One by Congress in 1970. Under federal law, Schedule One drugs have “no currently accepted medical use” and “high potential for abuse,” and include heroin, ecstasy, LSD, and mescaline.

Oral arguments began at 9:30 a.m. EST in Washington D.C. and just wrapped, apparently.

Americans for Safe Access thinks this third petition can succeed because more research exists on medical marijuana than ever before. The DEA is also violating its own rules by leaving pot in Schedule One, the appeal states, because the DEA uses an absurdly high double-standard for pot scheduling compared to any other drug. Most drugs need medical experts to testify to a drug’s efficacy before approval for use, but pot must first unite the world in a “scientific consensus” before it’s reclassified. The DEA prevents scientists from approaching such a consensus by withholding the only medically valid supplies of weed in the United States from researchers who would study its medical efficacy.

protest

Marijuana rescheduling protest

Audio teleconference of ASA briefing with researchers, lawyers and plaintiff:

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